Many modern vehicles are equipped with a hands-free communication system that uses a microphone or multiple microphones to receive an audio signal including occupant voices. This audio signal is fed to a voice recognition system for vehicle control or a hands-free telephony system, or is used for communication to other zones in the vehicle. The user experience with these technologies is that playing media such as radio, streamed audio, or other music sources is hard muted during “voice sessions” to enable the occupant to focus on the content of that voice session.